Relegate the worst referees, urges Tony Pulis

Stoke boss
Tony Pulis has called for an overhaul of the system under which referees are currently assessed.

Anger management: Pulis has hit out at refereeing standards

During their 2-0 defeat at Sunderland on Saturday, the Potters were denied a penalty for a clear handball on the goalline by Lee Cattermole and later had defender Ryan Shawcross sent off by referee Martin Atkinson .

For Pulis, these are just the latest calls to infuriate him as he feels smaller Premier League clubs are getting a raw deal from referees.

Ahead of tonight’s clash at home to Birmingham, he said: ‘It cannot be right these decisions consistently go on without being addressed.

‘Don’t kid yourself this hasn’t happened in the first two years we were in the Premier League. We know we are not going to get certain decisions other clubs are going to get – I think that has been made blatantly obvious over the past few games.

‘But there comes a point where you have to stand up and say, “this is not right”.’

Pulis wants top-flight clubs to be able to grade referees, with those receiving the worst marks being ‘relegated’.

He added: ‘We should put in place a system where every Premier League club has a vote at the end of the season on referees.

‘The bottom three should be relegated to the Championship and the top three referees from the Championship should be promoted.’